11 acre rural build - house plan

Thank you! It's so great hearing everyone's ideas. I definitely agree with straightening out the north side of the house, I don't even know why I didn't have this thought at all. I guess that's why it's so helpful posting the concept for suggestions like yours. Your WIP looks fantastic especially with the window. I have also requested another sink and a window in the current WIP. Like I mentioned previously, I don't ever want people to think that I don't want to hear their ideas because I absolutely do but I'm going to be stubborn again because I like the corner bench top in the WIP but it would be great to extend it out, that I am definitely considering. Thanks again

Thank you, I also really like the layout you have provided and initially this is what I had envisioned. I'm definitely going to ask if there is a way to bring it out and maybe incorporate a layout like this except that I love having the sink on the window facing the alfresco as I want to keep the island clear.

Yes absolutely, that is another great thought for extending those areas out. Thank you.

You will ultimately make the choices for your lifestyle and how you will use the house, but on the master bedroom/WIR/Ensuite is it a huge overall space in comparison to your overall house design. If you plan on spending lots of 'awake' time in that zone then it makes sense.....but for us I would definitely take out 1800mm in length and create a neat 'narrow' study. This could then sit adjacent to the master and to the left of the extended laundry/WIP etc. It gives you an extra functional 'living' room and storage because you could easily throw a 'linen' type closet in there being so long. Yep we did that in our recent build and love it, the size an storage in ours is great.

Honestly I think that is the only glaring issue for me....and the misaligned northern external wall. The builders will love you for straightening out that main wall completely and if you can orientate it to the north sun (assuming you don't live in the tropics?) you will then have your master, (possibly a study!) and main living all getting passively heated.

For example today in cold Ballarat (Vic)....10 degrees most of the day outside, sun was shining and our main living areas heated to around 23 degrees and once the sun went down and we closed up all the blinds etc it is now 8pm and we are still sitting at 21 degrees.....and about 6 deg outside. No heaters at all. The only days we need to use the heaters is when it is really overcast all day and cold outside.

So my advice is getting your living rooms aligned towards the winter sun, and ensuring you have 600mm eaves on that aspect as well (block summer sun) will mean much less energy costs and brilliant naturally lit and comfortable living.

On the subject of eaves, ensure you request 600mm 'cantilevered' eaves, as opposed to the standard 'down angled' types most builders use as standard. The cantilevering does a few good things, including looks better from the outside (windows heads don't look like they merge into the roofline) and the extra height at your external walls (eg. top plates) means you can put stacks of insulation out on the edges. Personally I would use these eaves all the way around.

On windows, for the north especially I would definitely double glaze, but ask for 6.38mm laminated - 12-14mm Argon gap - 4-5mm Toughened glass. The lamination blocks 99% of UV (and also reduces noise) which will protect your flooring and furniture etc from sun damage. The clear lam addition only cost us overall about $300 for the whole house pretty much, it was cheap.

I know you are thinking of keeping that master suite as is, but if you want the extra space internally for a separate study/storage room you could easily re-configure your ensuite/WIR to something like this (see below). There is alot of 'dead' space in your current ensuite/WIR design and although it will appear impressive when you show people through it, once you are living there for about 2 weeks the novelty will tend to wear off and you might miss not having somewhere to put computers and be able to study/work in peace.

If you ever go to sell the house, it will also increase value because all of a sudden you have a '+ Study'.

As you can tell I am a big fan of house design based on functionality and live-ability. So far you have a really good design, but some tweaks here and there and could be truly awesome. Most of us spend most of our time hanging out in living areas, not utility rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms etc....so be generous to those zones.


Anyhow I am going to leave you to it now, as you seem quite set with some of what you have and it's your money and you have to live in it after all. Good luck with the build.

Absolutely put the sink facing the alfresco, there’s no reason not to and keep your island clear. We designed ours with the sink on the island and we have a breakfast bar looking outside, as we like to sit and eat breakfast looking at our view rather than the kitchen.
I think access to the pantry is much easier when it’s a continuation rather than walking around the corner to access through a door as you have now. But I refused to have a door on my pantry as I had one last house and it was never closed, instead I designed it this time to be functional but still look tidy without any doors.
This is all about making the house of your dreams, everyone wants different things (this is our fourth build so I know what I want and what works for us!) but the current design is just wasting money due to the more complex roof and there is no reason for it!

Thank you yes cantilevered eaves are a great suggestion as we will be having a flat roof so that will work really well with our design. We are having double glazed windows throughout but I didn't know there was a laminated option so again great suggestion, I will definitely ask for this. In terms of the master, we really like the size and it has nothing to do with showing people it's more so that my husband and I are both shift workers and the bedroom is enjoyed by us night and day and having space in the room for our son to play around if one of us is resting and the other watching him means we can still enjoy family time together so it definitely is a space that we would take advantage of.

The misaligned northern wall was something that our custom builder and architect worked together on so I'm not actually sure what their reasoning was behind it as our next meeting for discussion isn't until next week however we will definitely want to try get this fixed up especially if it gives us some additional space and I would never have actually noticed that without your assistance as I was so fixated with looking at the internal layout of spaces. Location wise we are basically in the ACT, just a tip over the border so we understand low temps as you would in Vic. so we will definitely need to take advantage of the north facing aspect so I don't need heating on 24/7 like I currently do especially with home much time we spend at home. We are also having in slab heating as we will have polished concrete floors.

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Absolutely put the sink facing the alfresco, there’s no reason not to and keep your island clear. We designed ours with the sink on the island and we have a breakfast bar looking outside, as we like to sit and eat breakfast looking at our view rather than the kitchen.
I think access to the pantry is much easier when it’s a continuation rather than walking around the corner to access through a door as you have now. But I refused to have a door on my pantry as I had one last house and it was never closed, instead I designed it this time to be functional but still look tidy without any doors.
This is all about making the house of your dreams, everyone wants different things (this is our fourth build so I know what I want and what works for us!) but the current design is just wasting money due to the more complex roof and there is no reason for it!


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Ok so I had replied to you and then my pc crashed so yay let's hope I remember what I wrote. I really like how you have the breakfast bar though, there are so many conflicting thoughts arghh why is this so hard lol. I don't see the door of my pantry ever being closed either so that's a great point and I will definitely work on getting that roof line straightened up. I guess there's added pressure because we are hoping to stay in this home for a very long time because we love the area and our block and this type of land is very hard to come by so close to work for us too.

So here were are more than two years later, still waiting for our land.... However, I will admit there is one positive which is we have completely altered our original plan and I definitely would not have been happy with the original. Please see attached new plans

without increasing the total floor area my suggestions include an alternate location for the powder room with easier access from alfresco and downstairs.. space stolen from pantry and laundry and alternate arrangements for study, media and rumpus allows for more generous upstairs with bigger family bathroom, three equal sized kids' bedrooms, bigger study, a mudroom, less wasted hall space and a bigger front porch ... moving the alfresco allows for covered access from alfresco through laundry to powder room and less shading of the family/dining areas.... reversing the bed in the master bedroom creates a better from the bed and rearranging ens doorways allows better outside views from toilet and shower and avoids a view of the ens toilet from the downstairs hall

I’d be designing to meet the new adaptable housing standards should NSW adopt them.
This dosnt comply with them.